


never touch the ground

by thisismydesignn



Category: The Get Down (TV)
Genre: Canon Bisexual Character, Canon Compliant, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Possibly Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-16
Updated: 2017-04-16
Packaged: 2018-10-19 17:34:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10644735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thisismydesignn/pseuds/thisismydesignn
Summary: Shao sees something he wasn't meant to see.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Set immediately after Shao walks in on Dizzee and Thor in 1x11. Just needed some further exploration of what was going through his mind at the time.
> 
> If this show doesn't get renewed I am going to have Words with Netflix. There's so much story left to tell and no way am I ready to let go of these characters yet.
> 
> Title from "Role of a Lifetime" from _Bare: A Pop Opera_. (Full line: "so you fill your life with sound and if you dance like hell you hope you'll never touch the ground" - struck me as very Shaolin Fantastic.)

Dizz isn't— he isn't  _worried_ , exactly, but Shao is unpredictable and this, he hasn't shared this with anyone, so yeah, maybe he is worried, a bit.   
  
He stumbles through an explanation that says everything and nothing at once, mystical and spiritual like every word that falls from his lips but it's somehow  _different_  this time, and he knows it and Shaolin knows it but then silence falls and he asks if Shao can leave them, just for a minute, just so he can get cleaned up.  
  
(Thor's blinking awake behind Dizzee and all Shao can think is  _shit, Boo was right_ — _he_ does  _have pretty eyes._  It's not something he'd let himself think. He pretends he didn't.)  
  
Shaolin leans on his bike, tries not to consider what they're doing upstairs— Thor cleaning the paint from Dizzee's face, kissing his lips after he wipes them clean— tries not to think  _I wish,_ tries to keep Zeke from his thoughts, but Mylene's words echo in his mind, his own half-hearted denial, and he takes a long pull off the joint in his hand, hears the door slam somewhere above his head.  
  
He pulls the bike out, wheels it to the stairs, swings his leg over and waits. He's not sure what he's going to say until he's opened his mouth, words spilling over before he can even attempt to hold them back:  
  
"Dizz. You know there's a reason I go by Shaolin Fantastic, right?"  
  
He feels Dizzee rest a hand on his shoulder, get on the bike behind him; doesn't dare to look back, offers him the joint instead. "Because you're a superhero?"   
  
He doesn't hesitate. For once, he doesn't hesitate. "’Cause people don't need to know everything about me." He reaches back, presses a reassuring hand to Dizzee's chest, just for a moment, just enough. "Don't worry. I got you, my alien brother."  
  
He pulls the helmet over his head and with it his mask, the one he's not quite willing to let go of, not yet. But he thinks of Dizzee, of Thor, of the freedom and the peace in the way they'd slept side by side; in the way Dizzee looked back at Thor _(so protective)_ as he got to his feet, in the way Thor looked at Dizzee _(so loving)_ as he woke gradually, lips curving into an irrepressible smile, and thinks—  _maybe._ Maybe someday.  
  
Maybe sooner than he'd ever let himself hope.  
  
"Now let's get our Get Down Brothers!" he says instead, revs the engine, feels Dizzee's hands slide around his waist as he speeds off into the Bronx night lit by Manhattan lights, fixates on the determination that's kept him going this long, that'll keep him going for at least one more night.  
  
(One more night, and one more after that, one foot in front of the other until he finally gets ahead of himself, finally finds the words, the words (even,  _especially_ ) his wordsmith will never know, not until he lets him.)   
  
One more night. It's as good a place to start as any.


End file.
